The great stitch-up

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If the size tags on your clothes bear no relation to
reality, you're not alone. Jacqueline Lunn considers a change-room
conundrum.

Does the size on the swing tag mean anything these days? When
you walk into a store and see those perfect black tailored
mens'-style pants, do you have to take in an armful of sizes and
hope to the fashion gods that just one of them might make it past
your hips?

It's no secret that sizing in Australia is completely
inconsistent, frustrating and sadly heartbreaking. At Seduce you're
a size 14, at Country Road you're a 10, when trying a pair of
Citizens of Humanity you might be a 32, that Diane von Furstenberg
dress you're a large, then again ...

If you could just grow by seven centimetres, lose six kilos,
have a little liposuction on the hips and shorten your arms, that
bias-cut jade-green dress would fit perfectly. Or would it?

With two comprehensive Australian studies released on sizing in
the past two years, experts have been measuring Australian women's
bodies and finding the perfect fit is not as simple as drastic
weight loss, plastic surgery and an overnight gain in height.

Laura Evans, 29, loves to shop but "wouldn't have a clue what
size she really is".

"My wardrobe is full of different sizes. In nanna labels I'm a
small size but when I try on younger labels I can't fit into the
size I bring into the changing room. I'm bigger in the bust than I
am in the hips - two completely different sizes - so I can't wear
dresses. The whole thing can quickly become incredibly
frustrating."

In 2003, Rip Curl surveyed 2300 16- to 24-year-olds and found
the measurements of the average Australian woman were: 88cm bust,
71cm waist and 97cm hips and would fit a size 16 on the current
Standards Australia garment rating.

But not only are women getting bigger, their shape is changing
too. The National Size and Shape survey, conducted in 2002 by the
University of Adelaide and Daisy Veitch from Sharp Dummies,
unearthed some interesting and strangely comforting findings.
Before this survey, the most up-to-date statistics for body
measurements in Australia came from a 1926 Berlei survey of 5000
women and an Australian Women's Weekly 1969 survey, in which women
posted in answers to questions (self-reporting is notoriously
inaccurate).

In fact, Standards Australia's recommended sizing measurements
(the key word is "recommended", these are not compulsory) are a
hodge-podge of data from these two surveys, plus a World War II
sizing survey from the United States.

After measuring 1300 women and interviewing a further 5000 for
the national size and shape survey, three major findings stood
out.

Although women are getting bigger, they are not getting any
taller. Maciej Henneberg, professor of anatomy at the University of
Adelaide, and researcher on both the Rip Curl and National Size
Surveys, said the most "startling finding"

was the minimal increase in body height. On average, women today
are 20 per cent heavier and only 1 per cent taller than the Berlei
survey of 80 years ago and their body shape is changing.

"There is a substantial increase in weight," Henneberg says.
"This increase is obviously coupled with increases in circumference
of chest, hip and waist measurements. What is most common these
days would be what various retail outlets call a size 16."

Gone is the hourglass figure; we are bigger in the hips (the
survey showed a nine centimetre difference between bust and waist;
the Australian industry standard is based on a hip measurement five
to six centimetres bigger than the bust), making us, on the whole,
more pear-shaped.

The study also found 50 per cent of women can't find clothes
that fit correctly and that the sizes on garments have crept
downwards (garments that were once a 20 are now a 16 and so
on).

"I can't tell you how many women said to me, 'Oh, gee, if I just
lost five kilos, or if I was just a bit taller' - women think it is
their fault," says Daisy Veitch. "We want to get the right data so
that manufacturers can get the garments to fit real people, not
people having to change to fit the garments. That's completely
obvious when you think about it."